[pct-l] Pirate Attacks

[hiker97 at aol.com]

I knew this bit of information would be of interest to many on this List.? It came off the AOL website.
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While Africa remains problematic, Southeast Asia's Malacca Strait, one of the world's busiest waterways, has been relatively quiet, the International Maritime Bureau said in its report. 

A total of 198 attacks on ships were reported between January and September this year, up from 174 in the same period in 2006, the IMB said. 

It said a total of 15 vessels were hijacked, 63 crew kidnapped and three killed. 

In the July to September period alone, there were 72 incidents, up from 47 in the same period a year earlier, marking the second straight quarterly rise in attacks, the London-based IMB said through its piracy reporting center in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. 

"If this current trend continues, it would appear that the decline in piracy attacks since 2004 has bottomed out," it warned. 

Indonesia remained the world's worst piracy hotspot, with 37 attacks in the first nine months of 2007 - but that was an improvement from 40 in the same period a year earlier, the IMB said. 
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